Andrei Konchalovsky’s epic Soviet mini-Series “Siberiade” tells the story of a long-standing class feud between two families from the small Siberian village of Yelan: the kulak Solomins and the impoverished Ustyuzhanins. The confrontation spans 60 years and encompasses all the key events that took place in the country during the 20th century. By an irony of fate, the Solomin and Ustyuzhanin families constantly clash for various reasons. Their first skirmish occurs as early as 1907, when Nastya Solomina catches young Kolya Ustyuzhanin stealing food. Together, the two families endure numerous upheavals and transformations, love and hatred, loyalty and betrayal, joys and misfortunes. The prosperous Solomins and the carefree Ustyuzhanins are truly united in their love for their homeland and in their willingness to give their last shirt for the country. Each episode of the “poem in six tales,” as Andrei Konchalovsky himself called it, tells of another generation of sworn enemies, as well as the hardships Russia was experiencing at the time.
